But did anyone expect the US president to use his annual congressional address to plug hydrogen-powered cars?

“In this century, the greatest environmental progress will come about …through technology and innovation. Tonight I’m proposing $1.2 billion (€1.1 bn) in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.”

And it will, if the EU doesn’t get its act together soon, warns Marcus Nurdin, president of the Frankfurt-based International Platinum Association (IPA).

While the IPA has welcomed recent moves by the EU to increase spending on fuel cell research, it has also warned that “Europe is still lagging far behind”.

Platinum is an essential material for fuel cells and their commercial introduction could hugely increase platinum demand.

The European Commission has estimated total European public funding for fuel cell research at €50 million to €60m annually – about one third of US funding and one quarter of Japan’s.

Both China and Japan have extensive programmes to promote fuel cell research and Japan hopes to launch commercial sales of fuel-cell vehicles in 2005, envisioning a fleet of 50,000 cars designed at its plants hitting the nation’s roads by then.

“Failure to follow up quickly with budgets and actions commensurate with its economic rivals will inevitably result in the export of foreign know-how, capital and jobs and the import of foreign equipment,” said Nurdin, who is also head of the industry association Fuel Cell Europe.

The Commission has conceded that “EU efforts in this field are not structured and are under-funded and fragmented”.

But a High Level Group on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, convened by the Commission last October and set to submit its first progress report this spring, – and a commitment to increase funding under the Sixth Research Framework Programme (FP6) over the next four years – aim to rectify the situation.

Moreover, the US and EU earlier this month made an official commitment to increase transatlantic cooperation on hydrogen and fuel-cell research.

Nurdin said he welcomed these initiatives. “But they have to follow this up with plans and actions,” he added. “We are surrounded by regulations designed for conventional equipment, not for fuel cells and hydrogen.”

Setting up a proper regulatory framework now is what the EU should be focusing on, he stressed.

“The fuel cell industry is globalising before it is commercialising, so it is important to develop the right codes and standards as soon as possible.”

In a worst-case scenario, “Europe might even develop codes and standards that will form barriers…and then investment will leave Europe and Japan and the US will have a nice big market.”

Platinum, a rare yet durable metal, is used in the electrocatalyst layer of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells – the type being considered for hydrogen-powered cars.

According to the IPA, “no other material has been shown to be as effective as platinum in this application”.

However, there have been reports that platinum resources are too small to handle a major introduction of fuel cells.

But the IPA insists there are sufficient resources available “to meet all foreseeable demand”.

Platinum is also widely used in automobile catalytic converters to clean exhaust fumes.

First introduced in the 1970s, these are now used in up to 90% of new cars worldwide.